Prophetic

I entered my first comment on this film almost five years ago. Then,
the ideas presented in the movie still seemed mostly fictional, if
indeed they could ever transpire at all. Not any longer. Now, the
politics, society, and media in The Running Man seem very close to home
indeed.

Consider the following factors, which were mostly absent in 1987 (the
year The Running Man came out) that are present today:

Entertainment in the form of extreme reality, including pain, fear, and
discomfort on the part of contestants. CHECK

Cameras everywhere. CHECK

Restricted travel for citizens at the whim of the government,
controlled by a centralized computer system complete with barcoded
passports ("travel passes" in the movie) and sanctioned under the guise
of national security. CHECK

An increased intermingling, bordering on incestuous, of government and
media. CHECK

Computer-generated graphics that are advanced enough to manipulate real
film footage (such as the "digital matting" of Ben Richards' image onto
the stunt double). CHECK

Jailing of conscientious objectors or detractors of the current
administration. CHECK

Flagging economy further widening the gulf between the wealthy and
not-so-wealthy; increasing numbers of fringe groups reacting to the
tightening noose of big government; civil unrest brewing just under or
at the surface of nearly every sizable public event regardless of its
origin or intent. CHECK, CHECK, CHECK

Then again, maybe it's just a movie based on a Stephen King novella.
But just to be safe, I'm moving to Switzerland.

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86 out of 97 people found the following review useful:

The future IS the 80's

Of all Arnold's mid-'80s movies who would have thought that most relevant
today would be The Running Man. A chilling and surprisingly realistic tale
of reality TV gone mad. It may have been far-fetched back then but not so
now. Not when you think about it. Currently, Reality TV shows are either
scraping the bottom of the barrel or desperate to raise the bar. If the
next
one isn't more controversial as the last, it's a dud. How long will it be
before we really do see shows like The Running Man? How long before we
have
'court-appointed theatrical attorneys' or the entertainment division of
the
Justice Department? There is so much satire and intelligence in this movie
that may have been missed back in 1987 that is desperate to be seen again
considering the current state of TV shows.

The biggest message of all is 'You are being lied to'. It's no secret that
the Government and the media work in cahoots. And the masses believe what
the media tells them to believe. It's a very scary state of affairs and
unless more accurate representations of the truth emerge we may easily
accept a brutal show like the Running Man in the near future. It's no
secret
that Reality TV is not very realistic. It's edited and reshaped before
being
aired and it's only what the networks want you to see. Usually it's far
from
the real truth.

Although rather different than Stephen King's book (the ending is
completely
changed) the script does conform to the typical Arnie formula. Yes, he
does
have numerous and very corny one-liners and he does say 'I'll be back'
(which he never REALLY said that often anyway, when you think about it) in
the most ironic situation yet but he's still a zillion times better in the
role then Christopher Reeve or Dolph Lundgren would have been (these two
were considered BEFORE Arnie believe it or not).

The director is none other than Dave Starsky himself (Paul Michael
Glaser).
It may not be artistic but it is still strong enough to generate
excitement
and his use of neon and flourescent colors gives each individual set a
pretty cool look. Andrew Davis (not a director I particularly like) was
attached before Glaser, though no matter who directs, the film is still
marred by a very heavy 80's feel.

First of all, Harold Faltermeyer's score (remember him?) is incredibly
dated
and robs the action scenes of any timeless integrity. And the fashion
sense
of the movie is far too excessive to be convincingly set in the future.
Apart from the dated feel, the only other thing that bugs me is the poorly
staged shoot-out that passes as the climax.

This new DVD is a zillion times better than the original release. Gone is
the horrid letterbox picture. In its place is a brand new hi-definition
1.85:1 anamorphic transfer. The colors sparkle and literally pop from the
screen. The new Dolby 5.1 EX and DTS ES soundtrack are also amazing. There
constant use of the surround channels to great effect and the bass is
strong
and powerful. Definitely one of the best re-masters I've seen so far. Two
intriguing documentaries, a trailer and a 'Meet the Stalkers' gimmick are
included in this 2-disc set that comes in a rather neat slip case.

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71 out of 84 people found the following review useful:

"What a hot-head!"

In the near future, Arnold stars as Ben Richards, a wrongly convicted
man coerced into playing 'The Running Man', a deadly TV game show where
people have to keep moving to try and escape brutal deaths at the hands
of the 'Stalkers'. Of course, people are expected to die eventually and
its up to Arnold to prove the system wrong.

I haven't read the Stephen King book, but this is a great film
regardless, one of Arnold's best. He does what he does best in the
action man role, delivering death with unforgettable one-liners.
Classics are probably the 'He was a real pain in the neck' after
strangling a guy with barb wire, and 'He had to split!', referring to
whereabouts he just chain sawed someone vertically. Dawson is perfectly
irritating as the TV presenter, and all the 'Stalkers' are suitably
camp. The action is violent, but its an action film. That's the point.
The film is fast paced, and at 90 minutes it doesn't overstay its
welcome.

With Starsky and Hutch's Paul Michael Glaser at the helm, and made in
the wake of the success of The Terminator, previously this film was
probably seen as just another mindless action vehicle for Arnold, and
very far fetched. But today, anyone who watches a lot of TV could see
how the film is getting closer to reality. I wouldn't be surprised if I
turn on the TV in the 'near future' and see a show not to far from
this.

On that depressing note, I must however recommend 'The Running Man' to
anyone who likes the 80s, Arnold, ridiculous acts or violence or just a
good action film. 9. 5 / 10

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82 out of 108 people found the following review useful:

He Said He'd Be Back..."The Running Man" is Fun No Matter How You Slice and Dice it...

"The Running Man" is based on a story by Richard Bachman, a.k.a.
Stephen King writing under pseudonym.

It takes place in the near future, where everything is run by the media
and the government. Kind of like right now. In the future, there isn't
much selection on television. All there is is "The Running Man"--hosted
by Damon Killian (Richard Dawson, host of "Family Fortune" in real
life)--a show that features convicts, or "runners" being chased by
madmen, or "stalkers." It's a bit like a futuristic gladiator sport. No
one ever, ever wins the show. But Schwarzenegger has yet to play.
Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, also known as The Butcher of
Bakersfield, for firing upon a crowd of humans in a food strike. Only
one problem. He's been framed--he never shot anyone. After Arnie
escapes from jail, Damon Killian wants his hands on him for the
show--so they hunt him down and bring him in. Damon offers Ben a
deal--if he goes on the show, he'll let his friends from jail go free.
But if he doesn't...he puts his friends on. So Richards agrees to play
the game, only to find that Damon has put his friends-from-jail in the
show anyway. Right before being launched in the arena, Ben Richards
says to Damon, "Hey, Damon. I'll be back." There is a pause. "Only in a
rerun," Damon says. Yeah, right.

This movie is about as action-packed and adrenaline-punched an action
movie you're going to see in a while. We see an excuse for
Schwarzenegger being thrown into an arena with killers, where he must
use his brains, strategy, and most of all muscles, to kill the
stalkers. But the thing is, the excuse for throwing Schwarzenegger in
the arena is a good one. They didn't completely ignore the plot; they
don't even throw him in the arena until at least a half hour into the
film. They set up the plot first, which is nice.

Arnold proves his acting talent is not just in his muscles once again.
Too many people make fun of Schwarzenegger's acting skills, but to tell
you the truth, I prefer him over Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone
any day. Bruce and Sly are mumblers, in my opinion. Anyway, I like
Arnold in this movie, because unlike in "The Terminator" where he is an
indestructible cyborg, he is a vincible human with emotions in this
film. We see a different side to Schwarzenegger, and it's pretty nice.

Richard Dawson is surprisingly good as Damon. I love his charisma on
screen. Of course he's good at playing a gameshow host--he himself was
one--but he also has a very good acting talent. Check out the scene
where he offers Arnold a deal for going on the show. Look how smug he
is in that scene, and how well he delivers his lines. He envelops his
character very well. An underrated actor if ever I saw one. He comes
off slightly creepy and slightly likable.

This movie is good fun no matter how you slice and dice it. I've often
noticed it has a bit of a weird vibe to it, but then I realized that's
just the sci-fi/futuristic vibe of the film. I've felt it before when
watching sci-fi films. There's something about them. When I watch a
film, or a certain genre, I get different vibes. Sci-fi gives me a
weird vibe that is undescribable. This film gives that vibe to me. It
sounds weird, but I think a lot of people get "vibes" and don't realize
it.

I recently viewed this movie twice in less than a day; once at night
and once in the morning. It just goes to show how easy it is to watch.
It is strictly a fun, action film with lots of imagination and
charisma. Easy to watch with a high re-watch factor.

What would you rather do with 90 minutes of your life on a Friday night
then watch Arnold Schwarzenegger get to knock some skulls together in a
gladiator arena? Exactly.

4/5 stars -

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44 out of 61 people found the following review useful:

Awesome Action Film With Great One Liners From Arnie!

This is an awesome action film with great one liners from Arnie!. It's
stylishly made, with lots of tense action to keep one satisfied. The
Characters were awesome, and Richard Dawson, is very menacing as the
main villain. Yes it has tons of plot holes,however it's highly highly
entertaining, with a great ending as well. It had a great story, too
it, and Arnie and Maria Conchita Alonso had great chemistry together.
The Character development was also pretty good, with, some superb
performances. The Directing is great!. Paul Michael Glaser, does a very
good job here, with awesome use of colors, keeping it stylish
throughout, awesome camera angles, and overall keeping the film at a
very fast pace! good job. There is a little bit of gore. We get a few
bloody gunshot wounds, exploding head, slit throat, bloody chainsaw
slices, skinless corpses, blood, and an impaling. The Acting is great!.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is AMAZING as always, he is excellent in the
acting department , has tons of hilarious one liners, kicks that ass,
and as always is a big physical presence!, and was tons of fun to
watch! (Arnie Rules!). Maria Conchita Alonso, does well here, she was
really cute, and had good chemistry with Arnie!. Yaphet Kotto, is
decent here, with what he has to do, which is not much. Marvin J.
McIntyre, is good as the geeky type guy, he was cool!. Richard Dawson
is awesome as the main villain, and was very very menacing, and he was
fun to watch. Jesse Ventura,Jim Brown,Erland van Lidth,Gus
Rethwisch,and Professor Toru Tanaka, all do what they have to do very
well as the stalkers. Overall a MUST see! ****1/2 out of 5

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39 out of 60 people found the following review useful:

This Movie is Genius

This movie is one of the most Underrated movie of its time. When
watching this movie , your filled with action, and when somethings not
really happing , the humour is un matched. Brilliant writing for a
movie that was made to give us a bloody mix , of a game show where
criminals are the contestants, and a near future where the general
public all have a thirst for blood.Also Arnold Doesn't let us down with
some of his best one liners.I don't want to spoil anything for you ,but
i will tell you when Arnold gives his "I'll be back line" He gets the
best response of them all in this movie. Hope you enjoy this gem as
much as i did.

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21 out of 28 people found the following review useful:

A rollercoaster of a movie - great fun

Author:King_Opossumfrom somewhere much higher than you...18 April 2000

Released just as Arnold Schwarzenegger was achieving megastar status, this
film about stardom is a wry pun on his career and the media business around
him. Films like these are not meant to be analysed, they are meant to be
enjoyed, and THE RUNNING MAN certainly manages to do that.

After a shaky start involving the worst title sequence in the history of
cinema (although it's good to see the Sinclair Spectrum finally get global
use!), director Paul Michael Glaser presents an eye-popping glimpse at the
television of tomorrow. This witty slice of sociological irony would have
admittedly been slicker in the hands of regular Paul Verhoeven, but Glaser
keeps the action flowing throughout, and presents us with some bizarrely
fascinating villains as well as the usual action frolics. One query, though,
is over the level of violence. Oddly enough there doesn't really seem to be
enough. In a program where the broad concept is horrifically barbaric,
Glaser seems reluctant to horrify us beyond the disappointing "see the blood
spattering from the violence that's just off camera" and those awful rubber
corpses! I do not wish to appear to be encouraging unnecessary violence, but
in a comic-book film where 'gore is its core', not including it almost makes
you feel that it is trying to take itself too seriously, and therefore makes
it even more horrific. Perhaps this delicate subject is better explained by
Paul Verhoeven in his excellent commentary to ROBOCOP (DVD Criterion
Collection).

But the performances in THE RUNNING MAN are suitably solid, from the
powerful Schwarzenegger to the sleazy game show host. Any fan of the 80s
action genre will love this, so sit back and prepare for
SHOWTIME!!!!!!

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16 out of 19 people found the following review useful:

Cheesy, prophetic, and classic!

The Running Man is often dismissed as being just another Arnie action
thriller full of explosions, bad puns and gunfire, and to be fair,
there is a lot of that in it. People used to look at it and compare it
to the Terminator series, saying it was one of the poorer
Schwarzenegger films.

But, give it 18 years, and you find yourself being able to appreciate
it in a different light. Rather than just being another brainless
action film, it works very well as a parody of reality TV. It is quite
different to the Stephen King book, true, but I doubt whether
Hollywood, with its love of upbeat endings and so-called 'ordinary
guys' who turned out to have the skills of a trained commando, would
have accepted it in its current form.

But, on with the review.

Ben Richards (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a cop working in a dystopian
United States where democracy is a thing of the past, and the entire
country is ruled by a government/media conglomerate amalgamation. The
economy is in tatters, food is scarce and the state keeps people
distracted by producing sadistic gameshows for them to watch, like
Jumping for Dollars, where people jump for money over a pit of rabid
dogs, and the most popular one is The Running Man, a gameshow hosted by
the slimy Damian Killian (played by the entertaining Richard Dawson)
where supposed 'criminals' are hunted down by theatrical,
pro-wresting-esquire 'stalkers'.

Some, however, try and speak up against the government. When a group of
hungry people hold a protest in the town of Bakersfield, California, a
helicopter piloted by Richards is sent to 'calm' (i.e. kill) the
protest. When Richards refuses to fire on innocent people, he is
arrested and framed for the murder of the people in the crowd. He is
sentenced to a slave labour camp, but escapes with the aid of a
resistance leader (Yaphet Kotto) and goes on the run.

However, his freedom does not last long, and after he kidnaps network
employee Amber Mendez (Marita Conchita Alonso) in an attempt to escape
those pursuing him, he finds himself taken prisoner again, but this
time he is forced to appear on The Running Man.

And there, of course, the entire film kicks into standard Arnie mode.
Richards is launched into the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Los Angeles
(why is LA always destroyed in these dystopian worlds?) and forced to
run from the 'stalkers', along with two other prisoners who escaped
from the labour camp with him. Amber also becomes curious about
Richards' protestations of innocence, and discovers he was framed.
Guess what happens to her, then? So, as Amber, Richards and the two
other guys run around trying to avoid the stalkers, we soon become
aware that Richards is no ordinary cop. He's Super Arnie, the
unkillable one man army who can collapse evil corporate dictatorships
and fight obese men covered in Christmas lights all while being just
your average American guy with an Austrian accent.

Yes, the remainder of the film becomes dumb, loud, classic 80's Arnie
fun. There's a lot of exciting fight sequences, the trademark dreadful
puns ('He had to split' being my favourite), and the general formulaic
final confrontation and happy ending. It's a lot of fun watching
Killian react to it in the typical 'wholesome' gameshow host way, as
well, and some of the funniest moments in the show revolve around the
contrast between his interactions with the crowd as the seemingly
benevolent host (watch out for the cursing old lady!) and the cold,
cyncial man he is in reality who will do anything to increase ratings.

If you expect a high-brow, intelligent film, you'll be disappointed.
But if you want a great 80s flick, well, this is it. But the great
thing about this film is it was quite prophetic.

If you look at the entertainment we have today, you'll have noticed the
way reality TV is going nowadays - shows featuring people willing to
put themselves through anything for five minutes of fame, and producers
all too willing to let them humiliate themselves on TV. It's not too
far a leap to imagine that some vile TV exec out there has been trying
to get the right to show people be executed live on TV. We've already
had that, however, with the ghoulish al-Qaida hostage beheading videos
posted on the internet. It seems that in the current climate, at least
some people are perfectly fine with watching real death on their
television sets.

With that in mind, and coupled with the fact that everything these days
appears to be a revival of the 80s, you have to be impressed by the
far-sightedness of this film. Of course, we haven't reached there yet,
as it's terrorists, rather than the mainstream media, who have bought
us easily available programs featuring real human death, but you just
have to wonder how long it is before some exec decides to see if he can
find a way of pitching a show that combines people's desire for
entertainment and desire to indulge their morbid curiosity...

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15 out of 18 people found the following review useful:

Reality TV Taken to the Extreme

This is a classic action flick from the '80s featuring Arnold
Schwarzenegger in one of his most memorable roles. Set in a futuristic
police state where the government controls everything, including the
television networks. One of their most popular TV shows is "The Running
Man", where convicted felons are hunted down and killed for the
entertainment of millions. It's set up like a game show, where the
audience votes for their favorite "stalkers", trained killers who hunt
down and kill the show's unlucky "contestants". Audience members also
win prizes for correctly predicting who will be killed by whom. And the
host is played by none other than Family Feud's Richard Dawson, who's
game show experience makes him well suited for this role. When Ben
Richards (Arnold) is falsely accused of mass murder, he is forced to
play this sadistic game.

This movie is chock full of classic Arnold one-liners, such as his
famous "I'll be back" right before he enters the arena. And he taunts a
stalker armed with a flamethrower with "How about a light?" I could go
on and on, but I don't want to spoil the movie. It's funny stuff!

Whether it was intended or not, this movie serves as a great parody of
today's "Reality TV" craze. Already there are numerous programs that
show people enduring pain and humiliation for the entertainment of
viewers, and even court cases are televised for their "entertainment
value". Running Man demonstrates what would happen if reality TV hit
rock bottom, and it is a scary picture. One can only hope that the
networks have the common sense not to let it go that far.

Overall, this is a fun film & I highly recommend it. 9 out of 10!

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21 out of 32 people found the following review useful:

Dated, But still entertains

This Arnie veichle made in his 80's heyday is one of his better ones, It's
a
movie based on a Stephen King book of the same name.
It stars Arnie as a convicted killer (framed of course!)in
the
near future - Where TV is everything, He's forced to take part in a
sadistic
game show called 'The Running man' with an equally sadistic host played by
real life game show host Richard Dawson in which convicted killers are
chased by 'Stalkers' with Chainsaw's and flametorches who aim to kill the
bad guys on National Live TV with the audience going wild and choosing
which
stalker will make their next kill to win board games and other crap,
Stalkers have NEVER been killed on the show - Will Arnie & CO in their
silly
lycra pants kick the crap outta them? Of course they will